BEAVER, Ohio — A crew with the Pike County Prosecutor’s Office diversion program hauled 2,060 pounds of trash and construction debris off Germany Rd. on Wednesday, the office said in a Facebook post.
Officer Risner led the cleanup, which the prosecutor’s office documented with before-and-after photos showing sheets of discarded plywood and oriented strand board, along with scattered household litter, pulled from the roadside and wooded embankment.
The diversion program places people facing certain criminal charges into community service in lieu of prosecution, and the Pike County Prosecutor’s Office has increasingly turned the crew loose on illegal dumping sites around the county. In March 2025, the same crew, also led by Officer Risner, removed 32 tires that had been dumped along Swift Creek Rd.
Dumping litter on public or private property without authorization is a crime under Ohio law. Ohio Revised Code Section 3767.32 makes littering a third-degree misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and 60 days in jail, and allows judges to order offenders to personally remove litter from public or private property as part of their sentence — the kind of hands-on cleanup work the diversion program carries out.
The Pike County Solid Waste Management District also works to curb illegal dumping countywide by hosting periodic collection events where residents can drop off bulky waste, such as tires, free of charge, reducing the incentive to dump along rural roads.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Pike County Prosecutor’s Office.
